Pet Supermarket

[Caroline Hess]

While I was taking phone calls today, Mitchell Walters called. He is from the Pet Supermarket, 5805 State Bridge Rd in John's Creek. He told me they sell young (2 mos old) bunnies at the store. They come from Marshalls in Downtown Atlanta. He invited us to come and visit the store and we could bring adoptables with us. I told him that we would not likely want to participate in any store that sells rabbits, and he said he understood. He said that he would be happy to offer our brochures and literature in his shop.

 

His cell number is 678-412-5917 if we are interested in working with him. I don't know if we want to proceed, but I thought I should present the info. Some folks think that having anything to do with selling rabbits is wrong and would not want any of our literature associated with such a store. Others may think it's a good idea to offer some help to the unsuspecting public when they buy a rabbit. That would be a board decision I would think.

 

Caroline

[Ellen Stilwell]

That's an interesting question.  I was in Pet Supermarket the other day buying catfood, and this dad had been looking at the baby bunnies for a while.  He was seriously thinking about getting an 8 week bunny for his little boy.  Before I could even interject, the Pet Supermarket employee talked him out of it, saying a bunny would not make a good pet for a young child, and that it was a lot of work caring for a bunny.  I was so impressed!  The man left without a bunny purchase!  Maybe it would be a good idea to have literature in the stores.  Maybe more bunnies would not go home with unaware people.  I just wish there was something we could do about all the very young bunnies in pet stores. 

 

Ellen 

From: Caroline Hess <wrca...@comcast.net>
To: GHRS group e-mail <GHRS-bunny-com...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2013 1:22 PMng
Subject: Pet Supermarket

While I was taking phone calls today, Mitchell Walters called. He is from the Pet Supermarket, 5805 State Bridge Rd in John's Creek. He told me they sell young (2 mos old) bunnies at the store. They come from Marshalls in Downtown Atlanta. He invited us to come and visit the store and we could bring adoptables with us. I told him that we would not likely want to participate in any store that sells rabbits, and he said he understood. He said that he would be happy to offer our brochures and literature in his shop.

 

His cell number is 678-412-5917 if we are interested in working with him. I don't know if we want to proceed, but I thought I should present the info. Some folks think that having anything to do with selling rabbits is wrong and would not want any of our literature associated with such a store. Others may think it's a good idea to offer some help to the unsuspecting public when they buy a rabbit. That would be a board decision I would think.

 

Caroline

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[Johna]

Agree. It can be seen two ways. It might be worth making up some literature SPECIFICALLY for these situations. A shortened version of an info pamphlet that is easy to read and condensed down to a few major points. Like Spay/neuter! Indoor Housing! Diet! Behavior and incompatibility with certain households/children.

It could basically be an info packet with advice, and advertisement for our shelter and a disguised manipulation to change people's minds about the young bun in front of them ;)

Johna 

[Shelley Williams]

my local Pet Supermarket has our Rabbit Myth flyers and Rabbit Facts flyers - whatever the 10 things to know or 9 things that are myths.. those flyers. And then a list of local rabbit vets. Anyhow, I provided it because of the employees -- they don't want people buying bunnies if they know NOTHING about. The manager says she tries to talk people out of buying the baby bunnies ALL THE TIME. If, by providing the literature, we at least PREVENT bunnies being purchased that will then most likely be dumped or "set free", then I'm all for providing information about rabbits.

 

 

So I love the idea of providing literature.

[Caroline Hess]

You make good points. It seems like this particular pet store may be inclined to promote adoptions via GHRS rather than selling the bunnies that corporate likely insists upon. I wonder if the corporate office is aware of their employees distaste for selling these babies. Probably not. At any rate, if this store is actually working to educate their clients, I think it would be worthwhile to visit and bring some literature to help them do it well. Mr. Walters seemed quite sincere and might be someone we could work with. Perhaps we could invite him to come to a Bunny 101 (gratis, of course) to learn more about rabbits. If Pet Supermarket employees can stop unaware buyers from getting a rabbit, perhaps the corporate bigwigs will stop providing them. This is pretty strange for a pet store, so I would be inclined to offer some support to them. Just my two cents.

[Johna]

Brilliant Caroline! Your idea has made me think.....Would it be possible or beneficial to host an "industry people" Bunny 101 night.....ffree of charge and by invitation.

We can ask workers at Petcos, PetSmarts, local vets, people at the Tracker supply, the pet supermarket etc etc.

Right now we focus on the individuals who are looking for bunnies but how about trying to get the ear of those who are their CONNECTION to the bunnies and their bunny supplies.

Just an idea to toss around some. It would have to be something planned. An event of sorts with an organized list of invitees and maybe some refreshments or something. But maybe this would be a way to educate the people that are out their in the community and often looked to for advice

Johna

[Ellen Stilwell]

I love this idea!!! 

[Ronda Churchwell]

Wow - You guys are really thinking outside the box!!  But I think we should start down this road and see where it leads.  We could do an in-store 101 in different locations with our educators and leave the quadfold basic bunny care.  We might reach more people that way over asking them all to come to the shelter or another location.  We could offer an after hours one when the store is closed and take refreshments to them, or host a big event and invite them all to come to a different location, or speak with the individual managers and ask their interest or preference. 
 
Hmmmm - so many possibilities and so much potential here!!
 
Ronda
 

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Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 14:58:20 -0700
From: ellen.s...@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Pet Supermarket
To: email...@yahoo.com; wrca...@comcast.net
CC: GHRS-bunny-com...@googlegroups.com

[Caroline Hess]

Well, all of this sounds great, but it means a bit of organizing. We are still working on our shelter program and need to get that off the ground this fall. We are also looking to offer Bunny 101 in the various Petcos we service. While I think adding Pet Supermarkets is a good idea, we need to have enough educators to take on more classes and be willing to travel to these stores. I would be happy to contact Mitchell Walters and set up a meeting with him to discuss how we could work together, but before we do that, we could use a list of educators and those in training who would be willing to work on this. We need to figure out how many Pet Supermarkets are interested in Bunny 101 and where they are located. Would a meeting of educators and those in training be worth doing? Ellen and I have done some tweaking of the Shelter Bunny 101, so we could walk through that and make whatever changes we would like to see, decide who is taking on what responsibilities at the various shelters, who is doing Bunny 101 at Petcos, and how we can squeeze in Pet Supermarkets. We've all had some great ideas, but we need to sort them out so everyone is on the same page. Right now, I'm not sure who is doing what as far as these items are concerned. As Ronda says, there is tremendous potential, but a lot of pitfalls if we try to take on too much and do a less than quality job. Any suggestions on how to proceed? I hope I'm not being too anal about all of this, but I do think there are some great ideas here if we can carry them out without burning people out.

 

Caroline

[Ronda Churchwell]

So lets start with the one manager that contacted you - Tell him we would like to work with him because education is crucial to the lives of these bunnies.  Offer him and his employees the 101 and then tell him if he knows of any other stores that would be interested that they can contact us. 
 
I think our regular 101 would be fine because we would be teaching the employees how to advise the people who are purchasing the rabbits. 
 
If his is the only store interested, then we dont' have to worry about taking on too much.  If several contact us, then we can reach out for more help in specific locations.
 
I think the Petco 101's are for possible adopters who cannot make it to the shelter.  We prefer to have them come to the shelter if they can because then they buy things from us. 
 
You're not being too anal - thinking ahead is so very important because we do want to do a quality job and make good impressions!!  It adds to our credibility. 
 
Ronda
 

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From: wrca...@comcast.net
To: rjchur...@hotmail.com
CC: ghrs-bunny-com...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Pet Supermarket
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:19:32 -0400

[Johna]

No....I think you're being realistic :)

I think it is usually best to take a slower approach honestly. Often we have ideas that "get away" from us so to speak, get several irons in the fire and then it's hard to juggle. But building a good foundation, training more educators with an ultimate goal in mind would be great. We can then plan and work towards expanding our program and taking our message to stores and vets etc. 

But yes, doing so in an organized way and doing a quality job of it would be key :) I think we should keep all these ideas in mind though and work towards them 

I do think getting material to these places can be a start and even then taking on the project of tailoring handouts specifically for them. But that's just one persons input :)

Johna

[ellen.s...@yahoo.com]

I wanted to add that I believe Yvonne Baer has shown some interest in being an educator in training.  She's one of our fosterers and has done some transport, and also works at Petco.  She would make a great educator and could really help out if we branch out.  :)

Ellen

[Ronda Churchwell]

Yes definitely!  Hope she will do that :)

Sent from my iPhone

[The Bunny Lady]

Ellen, We would love for Yvonne to become an EIT – perfect place for her to help especially working at a pet store!  I do not have her individual email and not sure if she is part of the group one (Shelley, could you send another email with that list of people on it – I have missed it!

 

Let Yvonne know to just email me and I will get her going. Edie